Processed cheese, widely available in sliced and loaf forms, has become one of the more popular selling cheese products. Processed cheese products are particularly popular with children. Processed cheese is conventionally prepared by heating, grinding and/or mixing one or more varieties of milk-fat containing natural cheeses, such as, for example, Cheddar cheese, Colby cheese, Swiss cheese, Brick cheese, Muenster cheese, pasta filata cheese, washed curd, and granular curd cheese to suggest but a few types. The resulting cheese is then blended with other dairy products, such as non-fat dry milk and whey solids, and emulsifying salts, such as disodium phosphate, at temperatures which are sufficiently elevated to pasteurize the cheese and to produce a homogeneous, pumpable, fluid cheese material that may be formed into sheets, slices, or other desired forms.
It is often desirable to prolong the shelf life of food, such as processed cheese, and/or increase microbiological stability of such food. By increasing the amount of time a food is stable, processors can mitigate inventory losses due to spoiled foodstuffs. Prior methods, such as the use of packaging, preservatives, and/or specific storage parameters (e.g., refrigeration), have been used to stave off spoilage.
In particular, Listeria monocytogenes and C. botulinum can, in some instances, be a concern with foods like as raw milk, cheeses (particularly soft-ripened varieties), ice cream, raw vegetables, fermented raw meat sausages, raw and cooked poultry, raw meats (of all types), and raw and smoked fish. The ability of these pathogens to grow, in some instances, at temperatures as low as 3° C. permits multiplication in refrigerated foods.
Furthermore, while it is desired to provide improved shelf life to foods, such as processed cheese, there also has been an increased desire to provide foods that contain an increased amount of natural ingredients. In this regard, it may be desirable to provide foods which include only natural ingredients or otherwise remove artificial materials. For example, processed cheese oftentimes utilizes preservatives such as sorbic acid to improve food safety and shelf life. It may be desirable to incorporate natural preservatives and/or antimicrobials while maintaining and/or improving the characteristics of the processed cheese.